Wednesday, 1 May 2024

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:23): (855) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action that I seek is for the minister to apply an exemption for Wodonga students to the criteria for establishing a new school bus service in rural and regional Victoria. At present the criteria for a new school bus demands that at least 15 eligible students live on or near the proposed route and that at least 11 of them are enrolled in a government school. The action I am requesting is an exemption from the requirement that a two-thirds majority of students are enrolled at state schools. This should be replaced with a general rule that if you have 15 students needing a school bus, then an additional service is provided.

The electorate officers outside of Melbourne are all too familiar with the perennial flood of emails and phone calls from anxious and frustrated parents each November, December and January. That anxiety is generally from parents of year 7 students, parents who are already nervous about their child’s transition to senior schooling. The majority of students in rural and regional areas do not have the luxury of a tram, train or bus running on the quarter hour just around the corner from home, so it is particularly galling that the advice from the Department of Education is to catch public transport.

In addition, students enrolled at independent or Catholic schools are at the bottom of the priority order when allocating seats on existing bus services. I do not want to debate the merits of the schooling system, but I think it is important that independent and Catholic schools are recognised for the significant role that they play in education across the state, and the current priority order for school bus seats and criteria for additional buses fail to recognise that role. These failings are most acute in country Victoria, where public transport is limited and sometimes non-existent. Wodonga is a prime example, where substantial growth, a lack of investment in public transport and this prohibitive policy create the perfect storm. At the start of the 2024 year Catholic College Wodonga had 59 eligible students without an allocated seat on a bus. The majority of them were from the growth corridor that includes Baranduda but generally also Yackandandah, Osbornes Flat, Huon Creek, Killara and Tallangatta. One parent from Tallangatta was driving the 86-kilometre round trip twice a day, dropping off and picking up their daughter. The college had to buy a bus as an emergency measure due to lack of capacity and the limitations of the existing criteria for new services. They still could not fit everyone on board.

I am aware that the member for Benambra has written to the minister with a temporary solution for that, but this is a statewide issue. It is also frustrating that school bus issues are handballed between the Minister for Education and the minister for public transport.